Executive Director, Arrupe Global Scholars and Partnerships

Creighton University, a private, Jesuit university and soon to be the nation’s largest Catholic health professions educator, seeks a visionary leader to serve as the inaugural Executive Director of the Arrupe Global Scholars and Partnerships Program. Named for the Rev. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., founder of the Jesuit Refugee Service, and funded by an anonymous foundation, the program seeks to improve the health and well-being of the global poor and educate future servant-leader physicians. The decade-long investment underwrites the educations of ten cohorts of 12 students each from Creighton’s medical programs enrolled at our Omaha and Phoenix campuses.

Under the new program, Arrupe Global Scholars will earn medical and public health degrees while learning alongside international health care workers and Creighton faculty on multiyear projects addressing significant health challenges in locations around the world. Throughout their tenure, the Executive Director will engage intensive programmatic elements to guide the Arrupe Global Scholars’ formation as women and men of service, their skills as medical doctors, and their understanding of global health concerns as aspiring leaders in the sustainable development field.

In addition, the Arrupe Global Partnerships Program will pair Creighton faculty with in-country health care workers to address local clinical education needs and carry out sustainable development programs to enhance the knowledge and skills of local providers through further training, including at Creighton’s Omaha and Phoenix campuses.

We plan to begin educating the inaugural cohort of Arrupe Global Scholars in fall 2022, following a two-week orientation at the Institute for Latin American Concern in the Dominican Republic.

The Executive Director will interface significantly with Creighton stakeholders including, but not limited to, those below.

The Creighton School of Medicine
Beginning in 1892, the Creighton School of Medicine began preparing physicians distinguished for perceiving medicine as a sacred calling and caring for patients as a sacred trust. Creighton medical graduates are known for their clinical excellence, strong communication skills, cultural competencies, care for the whole person, and concern for marginalized communities. From orientation through hooding, we incorporate Creighton’s mission into the formal curriculum, clerkships, service experiences, and culture of the School. We are explicit about modeling our Jesuit, Catholic character in the way we treat our students and our patients and encourage them to carry on those characteristics. We constantly challenge our students to maintain a healthy balance in their lives and to see one another not as competitors, but as colleagues who nurture one another. In addition to the outcomes described by our accrediting body, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, we ask that our students graduate with a commitment to honor the full dignity of each of their patients, a framework for ethical decision making, a habit of reflection, and an understanding of the social determinants of health, as well as the inequities that limit access to health care and the remediation of those inequities.

Our graduates earn acceptance into some of the most prestigious residency programs in the nation, and a very high percentage are accepted into their first choice of specialty areas. Our 2021 medical graduates achieved a 91% rate of matching to their specialties of choice, despite COVID-19 reducing opportunities to visit prospective residency institutions. More than 6,400 Creighton School of Medicine alumni practice in all 50 U.S. states and nine countries. Creighton’s new $100 million, 180,000-square-foot Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Health Sciences Building – Phoenix Campus, including our four-year medical school, opens for classes in fall 2021 in midtown Phoenix and begins our pathway to educating 920 physicians a year–520 at Omaha and 400 at Phoenix. For the 2021-2022 academic year, we received 7,086 Creighton medical school applicants, conducted 866 interviews, and awarded 230 seats.

The MPH Program at Creighton University
As a distance education program with a national and international student body, Creighton University recognizes that we are not simply training the next generation of public health professionals to work in specific geographical settings. Rather, we understand that graduates of the program will engage with a variety of communities across great geographic diversity. The MPH program maintains a common scholarly thread to guide curriculum and program activities.

The MPH program has prioritized national and global populations experiencing health inequity, including those who are vulnerable, at-risk, or marginalized. The MPH program aspires to ignite innovative engagement that promotes optimal physical, mental, and social well-being and builds capacities to eliminate health inequity in national and global communities.

The MPH program promotes health equity through innovative approaches in teaching, culturally responsive community engagement, and robust scholarship embracing the Jesuit values of social justice, service to others, and critical self-reflection, emphasizing at-risk, vulnerable, or marginalized populations.

Following a successful site visit in Spring 2021, the MPH program is awaiting notification of initial accreditation by the Council for Education of Public Health.  CEPH will notify Creighton University and the MPH program of its outcome following their August 26, 2021 Council Meeting.

The Institute for Latin American Concern (ILAC)
For nearly 50 years, Creighton-ILAC programs in the Dominican Republic have emphasized the importance of global vision and understanding in the education of well-rounded individuals. On-site programs for medical, dental, nursing, pharmacy, law, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and undergraduate students allow us to work closely with our local partner and host, the Centro de Educación para la Salud Integral (CESI, also known as Misión ILAC). Creighton-ILAC helps support various academic, medical and surgery teams in the Dominican Republic throughout the year. Health professionals travel from around the United States and the world to donate their time and services in partnership with Misión ILAC and local professionals.

Faculty and staff collaborations provide opportunities for students to learn from, live in solidarity with, and experience the love and hospitality of the Dominican people while, at the same time use their skills to serve. More than 4,300 Creighton students have traveled to the Dominican Republic to participate in ILAC programs.

The Creighton Global Initiative
As one of the Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, S.J., Ph.D.’s first priorities of his Creighton presidency, the Creighton Global Initiative sought to animate, enrich, and embrace an intentional global focus for the University community. The Initiative bolstered the University’s commitment to global learning by creating resources that offer opportunities for faculty, staff, and students to embrace global perspectives. Through strategic philanthropic support, since 2017, the Creighton Global Initiative invested $2.5 million in 65 projects involving 1,400 students and 400 faculty and staff members.

The Common Home Project
Beginning in 2020-2021 the Creighton Global Initiative offered the Common Home Project, educational opportunities intended to help learners imagine their roles in creating a just and sustainable world. The Common Home Project affirms the Society of Jesus’ global commitment that emphasizes the promotion of justice and the universal good as part of the service of faith. It explores new ways to accompany the poor and excluded, promote education, and support a shift from what Pope Francis called “a globalization of indifference” to a globalization of siblinghood. The Creighton Global Initiative will be directed to collaborative programs between Creighton University and one or more Common Home Hub. Successful program applicants will serve sustainable development goals in Omaha, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Uganda, India or the Philippines.

Executive Director Opportunity, Responsibility, Requirements
The Executive Director of the Arrupe Global Scholars and Partnerships Program will eventually reside in Omaha’s new, custom-designed, state-of-the-art CL Werner Center for Health Sciences Education and new School of Medicine, opening in 2023. The $75 million, 135,000-square-foot facility includes the School of Medicine Dean’s Suite and serves as the health sciences interdisciplinary education hub. Active-group classrooms and a simulation center will bring together medical, nursing, physician assistant, occupational therapy, physical therapy, pharmacy, behavioral health and other students.

The Executive Director will be responsible for the leadership and administrative requirements of the program, including coordinating with Creighton School of Medicine faculty who will serve as the medical leads for each global partnership site. In addition to administrative functions, the successful candidate will maintain an active research agenda and participate in relevant service to the program and University. In addition, the successful candidate will teach in accordance with his/her disciplinary expertise and administrative expectations.

This position is a full-time, 12-month tenure track position. Experienced candidates with a record of accomplishment consistent with the rank of associate professor (starting rank negotiable) will receive preference. Review of applications will begin immediately and will end when the position is filled.

The ideal candidate will demonstrate these qualifications:

1. M.D. or Ph.D./Ed.D. in health care management, health care administration, health services administration, health services research, or business-related field with health care management concentration;
2. Earned MPH;
3. An established network and professional reputation related to global health initiatives and education;
4. A record of success in graduate-level teaching and advising;
5. An established research agenda with a focus on global health initiatives/outcomes with success in securing extramural funding;
6. Prior experience in the development and administration of international educational experiences.
7. A commitment to service, demonstrated by active engagement; and
8. Knowledge of or familiarity with the mission of Creighton University.

Additional preferred qualifications

1. Previous administrative experience;
2. Experience in online teaching.

Candidates should submit a complete dossier by accessing the posting at https://hr.creighton.edu/careers)    
 

• Application form
• Letter of interest addressing the applicant’s qualifications and background as it relates to the requirements of the position,
• Curriculum vitae,
• Names of and contact information for three references.

If you have any questions please contact the Search Committee Chair:  Dr. René Padilla, Vice Provost for Global Education and Chair at renepadilla@creighton.edu

Potential candidates are also encouraged to review the Faculty Handbook at:
https://www.creighton.edu/fileadmin/user/GeneralCounsel/docs/Faculty_Handbook_2016__complete_.pdf